Men plotted terror attack ‘bigger than 7/7′, court hears

Three men plotted to detonate eight homemade bombs in rucksacks in a terrorist suicide attack that would have been worse than the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, a court has heard.

From left to right: Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali (Picture: PA)

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, all from Birmingham, were accused of being ‘central figures’ in an extremist plot involving eight bombers, Woolwich crown court was told.

‘The police successfully disrupted a plan to commit an act or acts of terrorism on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005 had it been allowed to run its course,’ prosecutor Brian Altman QC said.

‘The defendants were proposing to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack and/or to detonate bombs on timers in crowded areas in order to cause mass deaths and casualties.’

All three men are charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.

Mr Naseer, from Sparkhill, is charged with five counts of the offence, Mr Khalid, from Sparkbrook, is charged with four counts, and Mr Ali, from Balsall Heath, is charged with three counts.

All three men deny the charges, which relate to a period between Christmas Day 2010 and September 19 last year.

Mr Altman described the trio as ‘jihadists’ and the ‘senior members of a home-grown terror cell’.

The court heard that Mr Naseer was recorded as saying he was disappointed the 7/7 attackers did not use nail bombs in their attacks that killed 52 people in the capital’s transport network.

‘Naseer was recorded agreeing… that July 7 had gone a bit wrong, really that the London bombers had not done more damage because they had failed to put nails on or in their bombs.

‘They hadn’t done it well enough by not attaching shrapnel to the bombs that they exploded in London on that fatal day in 2005.’